All posts tagged ‘math basics’

Danica McKellar is the author of a series of popular books focused on getting middle school-aged girls into math. This Q&A was supplied to GeekMom by Rebecca Zook.

What can parents do to support their daughters in math?
From a young age, point out how math is used in everyday life. So if you’re grocery shopping with your toddler, talk about the unit price for the meat you’re buying, and how you multiply that times the weight to get the total price. Add things up in the cart to estimate what you’ll be paying at the front. Or if you’re buying shoes, talk about what the 20% discount means. Show your daughters (and sons) that math is all around them. Get ‘em young if you can!

And whether you are a mother or father talking to your daughter or son, please heed this advice: If you didn’t like math in school or felt that you failed at it, please don’t share that with your kids. Math gets enough bad PR as it is for being “too hard” and your kids look up to you! Downplay your own negative feelings about math as much as you can; otherwise, you’re setting the bar low, and they’re likely to meet you there at some point in the near future.

What can parents do to help their kids when they’re struggling or frustrated with math?
Get them some help! Understandably, many parents are not familiar with the math their kids are doing – either because they weren’t “math-y” kids themselves, or the methods feel too different. So look for outside resources – of course I recommend my books for both students and parents wanting to brush up (see danicamckellar.com for pre-algebra and algebra books), but there are also good tutors to be found both online and through local tutoring centers (be prepared that you may have to kiss a few frogs before you find the right match for your kid…). The important thing is to get involved early, because math, more than any other subject, is cumulative and a small confusion today could lead to a major problem later – just like building a house on a rocky foundation. Not good!